Since people having been asking for a continuation to my story Desperate, I decided to elaborate on it and add a few chapters. Spoiler, I will be concluding this one with a confession by Arnold. This first chapter is pretty much a more elaborate version of my original story with certain events being explained by flashbacks. I hope you like this version just as much, if not more, than my original. Read & Review!

13 year old Arnold had always been considered the angel of Hillwood. When people described him, they generally used three words: kind, caring and heroic. His deeds and demeanor were well-known throughout the city. Of course, Arnold wasn't perfect, but he was about as close to it as one could get as far as the people of Hillwood were concerned.

When Arnold cared about someone, loved someone, his love had much the same characteristics as the rest of his personality: kind, caring and patient. He cared about his loved ones to where he would readily risk his life if necessary and he was always kind to those he loved, even if they didn't treat him the same. His love was also unconditional, and therefore, patient. He would take his time with a relationship and wait for someone to warm up to him and trust him if he really cared about them.

The list of people Arnold loved was rather short. His parents and grandparents were at the top of the list. Gerald was next as his best friend. Phoebe and Lila came after that, as he loved them both as very good friends. The last person on the list was a recent addition and one that he never thought would be on the list at all. Helga G. Pataki. He discovered his feelings for her about a year ago.

Arnold lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He and just gotten home after walking Helga home, something that occurred on an almost daily basis now. The last time that he had walked Helga home was when he had accidentally given her amnesia after she got hit with a baseball. He laughed at the memory. She had been so helpless and innocent, a far cry from the usually closed off, temperamental girl everyone knew.

Arnold had been thinking about their relationship a lot, and he knew something was changing. Despite their history, he and Helga had become great friends within the last year. He was of course elated that he had finally gotten what he had been after ever since Pre-kindergarten, a civil relationship with Helga Pataki.

"But why? Why is it that I wanted to be friends with her so badly?" he asked himself for the hundredth time since their friendship started. "I mean, she's treated me like crap for the better part of my childhood and yet for some reason, I insisted on always seeing the glimpses of good and kindness that she showed me and others and still tried to be her friend."

Arnold at first thought that maybe it was just his nature to always see the good in people that compelled him to be nice to Helga even when she was being a downright witch to him. But he remembered giving up on helping Chocolate Boy, at least temporarily, when he had caught him eating chocolate after their lessons together, acting as if he wasn't serious about beating his addiction.

"I don't get it. Chocolate Boy was a saint compared to Helga, but I was more willing to suffer for the sake of my nemesis than to help an addict."

Arnold had always thought of Helga as a mystery. Her tough facade hid a compassionate, creative and fragile individual. Helga felt that she had to be strong to avoid being hurt since her home life sucked. He had figured that much out over the time he had known her. What he didn't know was why she always was guarded around him, more so than anyone else.

"Maybe that's why. I wanted to know why she never let me in when she would do so with other people. But then, I still don't really know the answer."

Arnold went over all the times she was cruel to him and frowned. They were so numerous, he couldn't count them. He then went over the rare instances of kindness she showed him and smiled. He suddenly knew why he had always wanted to get close to her. He wanted to see the kind side of her personality and now that they were friends, he saw it every day. He liked it, no, loved it.

Arnold snapped upright at his thoughts. "Wait a minute, love? Do I…love Helga?" The more he thought about it, the more it seemed right. He smiled. "Love…I love Helga!"

All his questions were answered at that moment. He wanted to get close to her because he had fallen in love with her. But as much as he wanted to bask in this new revelation, another question presented itself. How long? He met her in pre-k and already liked her. When she turned into the local bully, he put those feelings away to keep from getting on her bad side. He remembered when he lost his hat and his utter surprise and joy when Helga of all people returned it to him. He was so overwhelmed that he had hugged her on impulse. Those feelings he had kept locked up had suddenly resurfaced with a vengeance.

From that day on, Arnold was always on the lookout for those rare showings of compassion from Helga and he tried to bring them about by being nice to her.

"So that means…I've loved her since fourth grade. Wow." He laughed again, this time at himself for not realizing it sooner. "Man Arnold, for someone who's supposed to have all the answers, you sure can be dense. Well, now that I know, I plan on showing it to her."

At the time, the idea of actually telling her his feelings never crossed his mind, but Arnold kept his word and now he treated Helga the same as his other loved ones. He was always nice to her and her to him. He looked out for her well-being and was always there when she needed him. He had always been patient with her and it seemed to finally pay off. However, Helga still seemed to keep him at a distance when it came to her emotions and now matter how hard he tried, Arnold felt that he didn't have her complete trust. Over the course of their new friendship, he realized that his love for her had taken on a new characteristic: desperate.

Arnold was no longer content with just caring for Helga as a friend. He wanted to love her, to hold her and kiss her and be the one she confided in. Fear kept him from expressing this desire, however. Since his friendship with her was fairly new and he assumed that she had hated him prior to it, Arnold was afraid that if he told Helga of his feelings, she would almost certainly reject him.

Since Arnold couldn't verbalize his feelings, he expressed them the only way he knew how; through his actions, often in secret and he began to do things that Helga had done when she was younger in order to express her feelings for him. Arnold would glance at her constantly in class when she wasn't looking. He would hide behind walls and stare after her, both on and off school grounds. Arnold had essentially taken on the role of a stalker with a crush and not only knew Helga's school schedule but where she went after school and on the weekends and he would deliberately modify his route so that they would bump (and sometimes crash) into each other, just so he could talk to her. He barely went to Helga's house however, since her father didn't take too kindly to his presence.

Arnold even had a picture of Helga that he kept in his room. He had taken it on the day that the two had agreed to start over on their relationship.

Arnold and Helga were sitting in the park. Arnold was pleasantly surprised by the recent change in her behavior toward him. She seemed to be a lot nicer, in her speech and her actions. She still called him football head, but it was more of a nickname now than an insult.

Arnold turned to Helga and smiled. "Hey Helga, I just want to tell you I'm really happy to see this change in you. You're so much kinder now."

"Well, I figured I couldn't keep up the bitchy act forever, football head," she said, smirking at him.

"Well, I think it's great. Um…since we seem to be on good terms now, do you think you and I could start over?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, on our relationship, as friends."

Arnold didn't know why, but he was praying she'd say yes.

Helga smiled at her secret crush. "Sure. I'd like that," she answered.

Arnold beamed. He felt like jumping up and shouting for joy.

"Great! I know this is gonna sound cliché, but how about we take a picture for commemoration?"

"Whatever floats your boat football head," she said but smiled at him.

Arnold took out a disposable camera and stood up. Helga went over to him and after Arnold finished readying the camera he held it away and made sure they were both in view of the lens. The two new friends smiled and Arnold snapped the picture.

"Would you mind if I take one more? One of just you?" he asked shyly, while blushing.

"Why?" she asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"I wanna get a picture of you with your new look," he said.

"Arnold, I just let my hair down, it's not really a new look."

"I like it. Please?"

Helga couldn't help but giggle at his expression. He was like a kid begging his parents for candy.

"Oh alright."

Arnold stood in front of Helga and put the camera into focus.

"Smile for me!" Arnold said.

Helga gave a soft smile and he zoomed in to focus on her face. Once he was satisfied, Arnold snapped the picture.

Arnold cherished that picture. When he would get home from school, he would take it out and stare at it for up to an hour, carrying on conversations with it. Sometimes, he would say "I love you" to the picture as if it was the real thing. Coincidentally, Arnold started a journal that same day, to celebrate their new friendship.

When Arnold got back to the boarding house, he took out a spiral notebook. He had several for school in case he lost one. He opened it and began to write the first entry of what would be his new journal.

January 11, 1998

Dear Journal,

Today is officially the second best day of my life, the first being when I found my parents alive. Anyway, I finally achieved what I've been after since I was in Pre-K. Helga G. Pataki, the girl who has been the bane of my existence for years, is my friend! I can hardly believe it! I knew eventually my persistence would pay off. Now that she and I are friends, maybe I can finally get her to open up to me and let down her walls so I can really get to know her. I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful, long lasting relationship.

The tone of the passages started out happy as he had finally achieved his goal of becoming friends with Helga. When he realized he loved her, the tone was still happy, but carried adoration for her. He talked about the aspects of her personality that attracted him and the fact that she had become quite the beauty of middle school.

Now that Arnold wanted Helga as more than a friend, the nature of his entries varied. The adoration was still there, but many times, the entries related a longing for a romantic relationship with Helga. Other times, he expressed anger at himself for not being able to tell her his feelings and sometimes, on days when they would fight (which were rare now), Arnold's entries carried a profound sadness over the fact that he still didn't have her complete trust and that he felt Helga would never return his affections.

Arnold's love was kind, caring, patient and in the case of Helga, desperate. He had never wanted someone's love so much before, not even Lila's. Because his love was kind, Arnold would always treat her well. Because his love was caring, he would lay down his life in a heartbeat if it would make her happy. Because his love was patient, Arnold would wait for her forever, and because his love was desperate, every day, his need for her grew and every day, he hoped that he would get up the courage to tell her just how deep his feelings were.